Video: How to take great pics from the Seafair sky

P-I photographer Josh Trujillo has an awesome job. But the Seafair pilots he’s ridden with the last four years have it even better.

“Every year that I’ve done this, upon landing, I tell the pilots, ‘You have the coolest job in the world. It’s even cooler than mine.’ And they laugh.”

Trujillo flew with Maj. John Klatt of the John Klatt Airshows for about an hour Wednesday over Puget Sound and Elliott Bay. His mission: To photograph the sky.

“It’s like a super intense carnival ride,” Trujillo said. “The best roller coaster at Six Flags had nothing on what these guys do.”

Trujillo, who served four years in the Air Force before taking up photojournalism, is not one to get dizzy – even in a loop de loop. He talked with me from his boat on Lake Washington, where he was shooting pictures of the Blue Angels flying overhead.

“I think I can take it,” he said. “If I can’t take it, I’m going to lie and say I can, so I can keep doing this.”

Flying is an experience. Flying with a camera – that gets tricky. During the flights, Trujillo has to keep an eye on the horizon, know which way is up, and when it comes to his camera – hold on real tight.

“When you go upside-down, suddenly your camera – instead of weighing five pounds it weighs ten, maybe fifteen pounds,” Trujillo said. “If lose control of camera, it’s liable to fly around the cockpit, hit the pilot in the face – and then you’re in trouble.”